All you need to know about osteoporosis

What is osteoporosis? It's a bone disease and it makes your bones very weak, which means you're at risk of breaking your bones even during normal daily activities.

People who suffer from this disease can easily break their bones if for example they come across something. It sounds scary but it's true. Cases with advanced stages of osteoporosis can break the bones when they sneeze.

Source: golf-across-america.net

It is shocking to know that in the United States nearly 30 million people have osteoporosis or are at risk of developing it. Unfortunately, there is no way for you to know if you will have osteoporosis, but there are some features that can increase your risk of developing it. Many things you can not change, but there are things you can change to prevent the development of osteoporosis.

The risk factors you can control are:

Diet

You may already know that a healthy diet will give you a healthy life. So if you do not have a healthy diet there is the risk of developing osteoporosis, but you can always change your diet and control that risk.

If you want to have strong and healthy bones, then you need calcium and vitamin D in your diet.

You can find calcium in dairy products, and it is important for you to get calcium from food as much as possible. But if you, for example, have problems with dairy products, you are lactose intolerant, so you should use supplements that contain calcium.

You can find vitamin D in salmon and tuna, and there's also vitamin D in milk, soy milk or some grains. And the best way to get vitamin D is from sunlight, but you should always be careful and wear a protective SPF cream. As with calcium, you can always use supplements to get your daily dose of vitamin D.

Vitamin C is another good vitamin that helps your bone stay strong and you can find it in fruits and vegetables.

In general, you must have a rich and healthy diet if you want to stay healthy, not just because of osteoporosis.

Exercise

Source: Cathe Friedrich

If you want to have a healthy lifestyle, in addition to a healthy diet you must also practice. And the exercises can reduce the risk of contracting osteoporosis. Bone mass can be constructed with exercises such as hiking, running, dancing, weightlifting exercises, etc.

Cigarette smoke and alcohol consumption

Another risk you can control. Smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol can increase the risk of developing osteoporosis. When you combine smoking, alcohol and a poor diet, you get weak bones. Cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption are associated with bone loss, low bone density, reduced activity of bone cells, etc. But the effects can be reversible, which means that if you stop smoking and drink bone health it can improve.

drugs

Source: video blocks

Some medications are associated with osteoporosis. Oral or long-term injected corticosteroids, such as prednisone and cortisone, some anticancer and anticancer drugs. Some diseases or chronic conditions can affect bone health. You should always talk to your doctor if you plan to use drugs or supplements because there are many side effects that you may not know. Problems with mass and bone strength can be one of the side effects. So, please ask your doctor how you can alleviate those side effects and what you should do.

Other risk factors

And, of course, there are those factors you can not control:

– Age, with age, increases the risk of osteoporosis

– Being a female

– Ethnicity (Caucasian or Asian people have the greatest risk)

– Body frame (leaner and smaller people have a higher risk)

– The family history of the condition

Source: Mind Body Spine

The truth is that you can not change these risk factors, but it makes a lot of difference if you are aware of them. So you can monitor the health of your bones. This is a devastating disease and you can not completely prevent it, but you should be aware of it and control the risk factors you can. By controlling them you are making your bones healthier and with that, you are one step ahead in the development of osteoporosis.